MESSIAEN, OLIVIER ( b. Avignon, France, 10 Dec 1908; d. Paris 1992)
Messiaen was a self-taught musician who started composing for the piano at the age of nine. In 1919 he was admitted to the Paris Conservatoire, where he won a series of prizes. At the age of twenty-three he became organist of the church of Ste. Trinite, in Paris. His work there, and his devout Catholic faith, became the two focuses of his life.
As a composer, he was a great innovator. In 1935 he and a group of his contemporaries formed a group which became known as Jeune France ( Young France). Their aim was to give credibility to national music, the composition of which they believed had become trivial and cynical. At this time Messiaen himself was already composing orchestral, choral and keyboard works and, by the following year, he was given a professorship at the Schola Cantorum and the École-Normale.
With the outbreak of the Second World War, Messiaen joined the French army and spent two years as a German prisoner of war. He continued to compose while imprisoned, performing his Quartet Pour le fin du temps ( Quartet for the end of time) for his fellow prisoners in 1941.
With the return of peace he resumed his teaching post, where he was to influence a whole generation of post-war composers, amongst them Stockhausen and Iannis Xenakis. He continued to make frequent concert tours, as well as expressing his near-mystical faith in his compositions and his playing for church services.
In 1983 a major work premièred at the Paris Opera. This was Saint-Francois d'Assise, which Messiaen himself called "Franciscan Scenes", rather than an opera. The action is minimal, but the piece itself is gigantic, requiring a vast orchestra and having a playing time of five hours.
Messiaen's music is influenced by elements from many sources. Amongst these are Indian music, plainsong and natural sounds, including birdsong. His approach is highly personal as well as intellectual. His interest in the relationship between sounds and colour and his belief that voluptuousness transcends sensuality have both alienated and fascinated many of his contemporaries.
